E-Land Park Bets on 'Upscale' Strategy... "Complete Overhaul Including Service"

E-Land Park Establishes Customer Value Innovation Team
Reflecting Travel Demand Changes Due to COVID-19
Revamping from Appearance to Service... Improving Organizational Health

Yoon Sung-dae, CEO of E-Land Park, is set to improve the hotel and resort sector by leading with the luxury brand ‘Grand Kensington.’ The plan is to upscale the brand by completely overhauling everything from the brand concept to services in line with the travel trends changed by COVID-19.

According to the hotel industry on the 20th, CEO Yoon established a Customer Value Innovation Team about two years ahead of the opening of ‘Grand Kensington Seorak Beach,’ which will debut in 2025 in Goseong-gun, Gangwon Province. The Customer Value Innovation Team is an internal organization newly created by E-Land Park to strengthen service training for employees nationwide. To provide specialized and upscale services befitting a luxury brand, E-Land Park is known to have recruited external personnel with extensive overseas experience from hotels such as Hyatt, Four Seasons, and Marriott, and is conducting large-scale service training.

Aerial view of E-Land Park's 'Grand Kensington Aewol' international cultural complex opening in 2025 [Photo by E-Land Park]

CEO Yoon’s full-scale improvement through Grand Kensington reflects the changes in travel trends and customer demands caused by COVID-19. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, E-Land Park opened ‘Kensington Resort Seorak Valley’ with the concept of a private luxury resort. Despite relatively high prices, the strong customer demand for luxury resorts led to the decision to launch this luxury brand. Grand Kensington Seorak Beach and Grand Kensington Aewol are being created with top-tier facilities never before seen in Kensington Hotels & Resorts, such as all rooms being over 40 pyeong (approximately 132 square meters) and private villas, to meet the increased demand for premium vacation facilities following COVID-19, according to insiders.

There is also analysis that the know-how from E-Land Group’s overseas operations in China and Saipan has been actively incorporated. Currently, E-Land Park’s overseas subsidiary, Micronesia Resort Inc. (MRI), operates three locations in Saipan: Kensington Hotel Saipan, Pacific Islands Club (PIC) Resort, and Coral Ocean Point (COP) Resort. The Chinese subsidiary operates one hotel, the Guilin Sheraton Hotel. In January last year, E-Land Park fully renovated and upgraded Coral Ocean Point Resort into a ‘luxury golf resort.’ This attempt matched the post-COVID-19 demand from ‘overseas travelers’ and received a strong response. The three Saipan locations operated by E-Land Group absorbed about 30% of the hotel demand in Saipan, and as of May, the cumulative number of visitors to these three Saipan locations exceeded 10,000.

Kensington Hotels & Resorts stated, "Grand Kensington is a brand launched to reflect the travel trends changed by COVID-19, and it was brought into the domestic market by adopting the concept of the Saipan business, which has already succeeded with its upscale strategy. As the first luxury brand, there are high expectations internally, and we are striving to show a different appearance from before, from the exterior to the service, until the opening."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.